Color information is usually represented with a lower resolution than luminance information. For example, so-called chromatic sampling may have been applied to a color image in accordance with a particular scheme, such as, for example, a 4:1:1 or a 4:2:2 sub-sampling scheme. Several pixels, which are neighbors of each other, share a same chrominance component, whereas each of these pixels has a unique luminance component. This does generally not affect perceived image quality. A typical human observer will generally regard an image where chrominance information has a somewhat lower resolution than luminance information, as being equivalent to a similar image wherein the chrominance information has the same resolution as the luminance information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,926 describes that various image enhancement processes have been developed for improving the perceived clarity, intelligibility, and/or quality of images. These image enhancement processes attempt to render images more pleasing to human eyes, irrespective of whether or not these images are accurately reproduced. Oftentimes, a distorted image is more pleasing to the human eye than a perfectly reproduced copy of the original image. For example, if overshoot or undershoot is incorporated into the edges of an image, the resulting image is typically perceived as being more pleasing than an image without such undershoot or overshoot.